Buenos Aires Sunset

Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina on the Celebrity Infinity we had an unforgettable sunset.

Eschew Chilean Cuisine

My dreams of an exciting culinary journey, fueled by the abundance of seafood and agriculture in Chile

was smashed like a surfer crashing against the rocks of Punto Lobos in Pichilemu.

Granted, the faboulous wine experience in Chile was fully realized.

The wines in this country are great, fueled by the

massive export in the last 20 years, international

wine expertise has taken the results of ideal growing conditions to great heights, Wine acreage in Chile is enormous and must be several times the size of the acreage inCalifornia. Only the great avocado groves challenge the size of the planted area.

Back to the food. We ate in simple local restaurants, both inland and at the shore.

The Chilean kitchen has avoided being influenced by any foreign cuisine. It relies primarily

on Cilantro and Oregano. The staples are onions, potatoes, beef and fish. No spices seem to find their way into the meals.

The fabolous seafood, apparent at the fish markets, including clams, mussels and abalone, when offered in a soup, lose their excitement in bland preparation, boosted only by lots of cilantro., My dream of a Cioppino, a la San Francisco style never materialized, although seafood seviche was ok.

Beef is served on a bed of onions, with fries and sometimes an egg on top.

The fish is fried or poached, cilantro and oregano heavily abundant, served with mashed potatoes or french fries.

The bread is an English muffin sized hockeypuck. Canned-like ham and a salty white cheese are the universal choice for sandwiches.

Only the one time when we were invited to dinner by a group of young women in Casablanca, was our meal graced with vegetables and salads. That experience was great, and the food was well prepared and enjoyable, although it reflected the local tradition.

One of the girls, Danielle, indicated she was studying English at the university and was now in a culinary school specializing in Italian food, a paradigm shift for her. Maybe there is a future for Chilean food.

In closing I need to mention coffee. Chilenians only drink instant, they are a Nescafe people. The stores do not carry ground coffee and there are no coffeemakers to buy in the appliance shops.

When it comes to eating and drinking in Chile, the geography is breathtaking.

I put this together to show what one of the main reasons was, for our shift of travel plans back to a cruise.

I was suffering from taste withdrawal. We still have 10 days of Chile after Puerto Montt.

It is the area of the great salmon farms.

The beautiful geography of the Lake Region will be the source of pleasure there.

Cheers, from on board the Infinity.

FELIZ ANO 2010

We wish you FELIZ ANO 2010 from Valparaiso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlUAdEOuofc

if you want to see 1 minute of the 25 min fireworks we enjoyed yesterday, click the link above

Lots of Love to you from Harald and Renae

New Travel plans

As we are getting ready for the New Year here in Valparaiso, the San Francisco of South America, we also want to let you know about our new travel plans.

We are in a hostal on one of the many hills in this town and managed to get a fabulous room on top of the building with a view of the bay:



We will be watching the famous "best fireworks show in Chile" tonight, which is to be especially
grand since 2010 is the 200th Anniversary of the founding of Chile.

Renae will be taking pictures of the fireworks with her new camera, which we will post tomorrow.

NEW TRAVELPLANS

We will be boarding a bus on Jan 2, for a 23 hour ride from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
There we will board that familiar cruise ship, the Celebrity Infinity for a 2 week cruise around Cap e Horn. The ship goes back to Valparaiso, but we will get off at Puerto Montt to continue our exploration of Chile.

Half of a 2cm Red Frog

Day 6 Dec 10 Porto Limon, Costa Rica

Half of a 2cm Red Frog

Our outing for this port was arranged by a cruisecritic board acquaintance Guy,
an active, tall and skinny guy from Luxembourg.

He had tentatively reserved with 2 guides, but only confirmed one.
Nevertheless two shouting guides, with GUY on their cards, had to be dealt with,
before the right one took us to the van.

Our first stop was the rain forest, promising wildlife and jungle.
We drove for 2 hours, mostly up a dirt track, in a van which had seen better days.
about 15 mph, airconditioning off, we were passed on these dirt roads by other vans and even full size buses.

After driving through sub tropical, green forest, we arrived at the Veragua Rain Forest.
The entry fee of $45 per person was a surprise.
We walked thru subtropical green rain forest to a research station, where we saw lots of insects, butterflies large bugs etc, being pinned to styrofoam.

Behind the station was the upper station of a cable tram, which transported us down into a canyon, thru subtropical, green forest. A wooden walkway, promising 350 steps, took us to a small waterfall, thru subtropical, green forest. Back at the bottom station, another walkway beckoned.

We walked on a boardwalk for a few hundred yards (level, for wheelchairs) thru subtropical, green forest.
Lo and behold, the guide pointed to a miniature 2cm red, poisonous frog. I took a picture, then while others photographed and videoed the frog until he jumped off his leaf. By the time Renae got to it, with the good 20x zoom camera he was partially hidden.

We took the tram back up, thru the subtropical green forest and proceeded to the van.
As we started the driver killed the engine with bad clutch footwork. It the wouldn't start.
Several guys pushed it and we were on our way down the muddy track, thru subtropical green forest.

That's when Renae said: All this, just for a picture of half of a 2cm red frog.

We stopped at a beach, a very nice cove with strong waves.
The guide had arranged for a replacement van, presumably since the old one wouldn't start.

Curious Banana

A visit to the Del Monte banana plantation was interesting. The banana stalks are protected from insects by a blueplastic covering. We thought the "curious banana" was funny. (Renae has a knack for coming up with catchy phrases).

I took a ride on a banana stalk transport basket, movie on this coming soon.


Later we saw a sloth,

had sweet finger bananas

and fresh coconut milk, before wandering thru the port town.

Next: the Panama Canal

Day 4 December 7 Cozumel:

We rented a topless VW beetle. A sweet bucket of bolts (Memories).

At Playa Mia we took one of their 14ft Hobie Cats for a couple of rides in the ocean.
Not fast, but still a blast.

The Christmas spirit was visible there (already?)

A beer stop at the southeasternrn part of Cozumel.

The East coast of the island faces the Carribean Sea and is ruggedly wild.

We stopped at an archeological park with Mayan ruins, small and
totally infested with mosquitos.
We took a picture of an Iguana and ran.

Backin town we got a wild ride from the rental car guy to the pier.

We enjoyed a view of our ship and then boarded.

We have 2 sea days before reaching Costa Rica. What SHALL we do?
Eat, read, eat,lay in the sun, eat,walk the running track for 3 miles,
eat,go to a lecture,eat, go to shows(comedy, magic, piano, song and dance).

Tomorrow Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

Hasta luega.

Day 1: Three Dog Flight

We started the day getting a ride to the airport from our dear neighbor Shirley. At 530 AM and 27 degrees. Brrrr. --- THANK YOU SHIRLEY!

Off to another cold place, Chicago.

Lots of snow on the ground in New Mexico

Layover in Chicago. I bought a Corona at a Pizza place in the food court. I got CARDED.

Zero tolerance in Illinois.

Our second flight to Ft Lauderdale was a wild ride thru some thunderstorms. The gal next to us had a dog carry-on and so did her friend across the aisle. Two Jack Russell terriers. Then an old blind guy sat down in front of us with a seeing-eye Lab.

A Three Dog Flight

Then there was Ft Lauderdale. Warm and humid. Lovely.

We had a two for one drink special at South Beach.

We went home at

and the temperature was